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Moleskinerie is the official blog of Moleskine® and it is completely dedicated to you. It tells about your passions, youradventures, your experiences. Everythinag that involves your ideas and the way you express them on your notebooks.

Have you got ICE in your mobile?

11/07/2005

"A Cambridge-based paramedic has launched a national campaign with
Vodafone to encourage people to store emergency contact details in
their mobile phones.

Bob Brotchie, a clinical team leader for the East Anglian Ambulance
NHS Trust, hatched the plan last year after struggling to get contact
details from shocked or injured patients.

By entering the acronym ICE – for In Case of Emergency – into the
mobile’s phone book, users can log the name and number of someone who
should be contacted in an emergency.

The idea follows research carried out by Vodafone that shows more
than 75 per cent of people carry no details of who they would like
telephoned following a serious accident…"

However, in many cases, HOME does not necessarily mean that there will be someone there who can in contacted in case of an emergency. The number under HOME is physically fixed. The number to HOME will remain the same.

However, ICE should and would reflect the current number – preferably a mobile/cell number – of the nominated ICE contact.

ICE will make more sense when it becomes a standard within the rescue departments. Such that, the first thing a rescuer – paramedic, fire-fighter, police – would look for is the mobile phone and within that the ICE listing.

Since this whole ICE project has been done in conjunction with a cellular phone company – Vodaphone, I am sure the rescuing departments; fire, police, medics will know how to bypass the pin In Case of Emergency.

A paramedic in the US is NOT going to open your cell phone to look for a pre-programmed number for whom to call.

They – or the hospital – likely WILL, however look in your wallet or purse to identify you by a driver’s license or some other form of identification.

That is where a person would be smartest to include contact numbers. A piece of paper kept next to your ID never has dead batteries. Looking at a piece of paper kept with your ID is far faster to find, and looking at it is easier than knowing how to access your particular phone registry to look for “ICE,” and this is how things are done in the USA. It might even be taped to the license or other ID.

The note kept with a person’s wallet or purse ID might have “ICE” “In Case of Emergency” or “Emergency Contacts” on it, too.

Paper and pen still works extremely well. The problem with either paper or the phone is that the person has to RECORD THE WHOM-TO-CALL INFORMATION. The “survey” notes that 70% DO NOT RECORD THE INFORMATION AT ALL! First, RECORD THE WHO-TO CALL NUMBER and then secondly, KEEP IT WITH YOUR ID!

If you travel outside the US, it couldn’t hurt to have an ICE entry, along with one for “Home”. I’ve added ICE for when I travel to the UK. I also carry a card in my wallet with emergency contact instructions and medical information (diabetes type 2, allergies, blood type), since there’s no guarantee that a paramedic in the UK or godknows where else will know how to work the phonebook in my Motorola, and there’s no good way to enter the medical information in the phone. Because I believe in wearing a belt and braces (suspenders in the U.S.), I keep the same information on my Palm in an easy to find location, and in a file on the desktop on my laptop.

Why not do all of the above? When someone else needs the information, you may not be able to help them find it.

Might as well include a list of medication allergies and prescription medicines you take every day. A lot of doctor’s offices and clinics have tri-fold cards to use that will fit in a wallet. And remember to keep it updated.

Upon setting up an ICE entry in my phone’s contact list, I quickly realized that for alphabetical reasons, my ICE entry would take some scrolling to reach.

To remedy that, I added a period before the ‘I’ such that the entry is now listed as my first contact entry as “.ICE” along with the optional extra info appended to the end. This is likely to work with most phones given ‘standard’ computer rules for ordering entries in a list.

The ICE concept is brilliant. Take it a step further and add an ice sticker to your phone to let people know you have keyed in an In Case of Emergency contact into your cell device. You can get the stickers at http://www.icesticker.com

Take it a step further and go to walmart pharmacy and ask for the Vial of Life. Personal info is stored in an RX vial and placed in the refrigerator or glove compartment. A sticker goes on the window to let the rescue crew know it is there. No scrambling under stress to remember the name of that new medication. You update it as needed.
This is a huge help to the elderly (and EMTs)
The vial of life kit is free from WalMart. We are passing them out to the whole town.

In an emergency, you may be separated from your phone and/or wallet. Use ICE and a wallet card. The fire department, police or hospital will find one of them. Using both won’t hurt.
Another great program is the Vial of Life. Personal info is stored in an RX vial (marked Vial of Life) and placed in the refrigerator or glove compartment. You update it as needed. A sticker goes on the window to let the rescue crew know it is there. Now emergency responders have a list of your meds and medical history for pre-hospital care as well as the emergency room.
Since it is easy to get confused under stress, a list of meds and contacts (including your personal physician) in a designated spot can help the rescue crew to help you.
We also ask residents to tell us if we should look for a sleeping child in the home (if an adult caregiver is unresponsive), call the school to prevent a child from coming home to an empty house or call a friend to care for animals. We also look for the vial if there is a fire and noone is home.
The Vial of Life kit is free from WalMart Pharmacy.

ICE works and works with responders. I had programmed my mom’s phone with two ICE entries (ICE my Dad’s name and ICE my name). That’s how we learned that my parents had been in a car accident. Mom was in surgery and Dad died at the scene. Until they checked my Mom’s cell at the hospital, the people who were calling tried everyone in the neighboring counties with our last name and asked if they knew my parents. Both my parents went by their middle names since they were very small but the emergency people were using their first names so everyone said no. They finally went through my Mom’s purse and called me about 3 hrs after the accident.